Colombo, Aug 17 (IANS): Voting in Sri Lanka parliamentary polls on Monday showed an increase compared to previous turnouts, poll monitors said.
“It is a good sign to see the people enthusiastically casting their votes to elect the members of the new Parliament. The situation at election centres has so far been trouble free,” Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) Executive Director Ranjith Keerthi Tennakoon said.
He said CaFFE has deployed about 9,000 election monitors at voting centres across the country in addition to 430 mobile units, Daily Mirror reported.
Meanwhile, Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) Media Coordinator Anuradha Guruge said queues began to increase after 8 a.m. with more people coming out to cast their votes.
“The CMEV has deployed around 5,000 local monitors, 21 foreign observers, 75 mobile units in addition to about 100 monitors who will be at counting centres,” he said.